What is the North London Waste Plan?
The North London Waste Plan sets out the planning framework for waste management in the London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest for the next 15 years up to 2027. It identifies sites for waste management use and sets out policies for determining waste planning applications.
The North London Waste Plan has been produced jointly by the seven north London boroughs. The Plan is part of each borough’s Local Development Framework and has been drawn up in conformity with national planning policy and the Mayor of London’s planning strategy, known as the London Plan.
The Mayor of London has set an overall target for London to become self-sufficient in the management of its waste by 2031. This means London will be largely dealing with its own waste instead of sending it to landfill in the counties around London. To ensure that London achieves self-sufficiency, each borough has been asked to deal with a proportion of London’s total waste (the apportionment). North London boroughs have pooled their individual apportionments and have identified sufficient sites to meet this combined apportionment as their contribution to London’s self-sufficiency.
North London covers an area of 293 square kilometres and has a population of over 1.7 million. The existing waste infrastructure is over-reliant on transfer by road and rail to landfill. In order to meet self-sufficiency targets, north London requires new waste management facilities. This development faces competition from other uses for sites in the context of projected growth in population and jobs and the need to preserve the natural and built environment. The North London Waste Plan seeks to address these key opportunities and challenges by developing a long term strategy to meet the identified future need for waste facilities.